2012: Time to vacation in North Korea

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2012: North Korea tourism on the rise

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The accompanying news report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency said the young leader dropped by to get a firsthand report on the progress of construction.

"He was greatly satisfied to learn that soldier-builders have constructed a skiing area on mountain ranges covering hundreds of thousands of square meters, including primary, intermediate and advanced courses with almost 110,000 meters (68.3 miles) in total length and 40-120 meters (131-394 feet) in width," said the KCNA report.

The new resort will be accessible from the Pyongyang-Wonsan tourist motorway and will feature a hotel, heliport and "cableway."

Kim, who was partly educated in Switzerland, appears to be familiar with ski resort operations.

"He said it is necessary to build not only rest places, but first aid stations at starting, middle and final points of the courses, and establish an automatic cableway monitoring system for a real time watch so as to take measures to prevent accidents," said the report.

According to the report, Kim also emphasized environmental conservation: "He underlined the need to preserve the ecological environment and prevent pollution while building the skiing ground."

According to a tour agency specializing in North Korean travel, the new resort will be open to foreign tourists.

"We've known of the plans for this development for a couple of years -- work only began recently though and I've seen the basic plans just last week," said Simon Cockerell, general manager of Beijing-based Koryo Tours.

South Korean media covered the news of the resort in critical fashion.

"The fact that North Korea is spending exorbitant amounts of money building a ski resort while its people and even its military don't have enough to eat shows that this is just a move to advertise the image of Kim Jong Un as a leader who cares about his people," an anonymous North Korean defector told NK News, a South Korea-based media company specializing in North Korean news.

The defector also said that existing ski infrastructure in North Korea is used exclusively for military purposes, and that there's a high likelihood this will also be the case with the new resort.